Ukrainian military news portal Militarnyi reported on 5 January that two Russian lieutenant colonels from the 76th Pskov Air Assault Division were killed in a recent Ukrainian strike inside Russia’s Kursk Oblast.
Russian forces have experienced significant losses among high-ranking officers during the ongoing all-out Russo-Ukrainian war, with confirmed reports indicating the deaths of multiple generals and commanders since 2022.
According to the Russian Telegram channel Officers’ Hockey League, Lieutenant Colonel Valery Tereshchenko, who had been directly involved in the war against Ukraine since October 2022, was among those killed.
The strike also claimed the life of Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Maletsky, commander of the 656th Engineering Battalion of the 76th Division.
In total, eight Russian servicemen, including the two lieutenant colonels, were killed in the missile strike on the command post in Kursk’s Lgov on 30 December 2024.
This follows a pattern of Ukrainian strikes on Russian command structures in the area. In a recent separate incident, Ukrainian forces targeted Russian officers of the 810th Marine Brigade. While initial reports of Deputy Commander Salim Pashtov’s death in that strike were not confirmed, seven other Russian servicemen were reportedly killed.
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